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What is a good non-subcription photo editor?
- Thread starter danpass
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While I have DXO Photo Lab 4 with the NIK apps, I am leaning toward Affinity Photo & NIK plugins because of its portrait tool. If DXO Photo Lab would not include the NIK photo bundle, I would not have any interest in it, since it is lacking certain features, including the one mentioned above.
That said above is only my opinion, for I plan to cease using a standalone PhotoShop CS6 and switch to an app such as Affinity Photo. There is a learning curve, but there are several instruction videos at YouTube one can practice with, plus several instruction manuals one can find at Amazon and other places. I prefer the latter because I can take my time reading, and find instruction videos a little difficult to learn from. In this case the hosts often move through the video too fast, specially when selecting actions (mouse clicks and keyboard commands) from the menus.
That said above is only my opinion, for I plan to cease using a standalone PhotoShop CS6 and switch to an app such as Affinity Photo. There is a learning curve, but there are several instruction videos at YouTube one can practice with, plus several instruction manuals one can find at Amazon and other places. I prefer the latter because I can take my time reading, and find instruction videos a little difficult to learn from. In this case the hosts often move through the video too fast, specially when selecting actions (mouse clicks and keyboard commands) from the menus.
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I don't do well with videos, either -- I much prefer having something I can read, re-read if need be, experiment with and then re-read again if I've misunderstood. I prefer step-by-step instructions, too, clearly worded. Someone on a video clicking this, clicking that, rattling on and on....just does not work for me.
My vote: PhotoLine, in combination with Krita, Luminar, and a couple of plugins such as NIK and FilterForge.
I have a sub via work for all Adobe apps, and I have Affinity installed. But PhotoLine remains my workhorse.
The latest version of PhotoLine 22.5 was just released the other day, and adds native ARM M1 support. Perpetual license!
I have a sub via work for all Adobe apps, and I have Affinity installed. But PhotoLine remains my workhorse.
The latest version of PhotoLine 22.5 was just released the other day, and adds native ARM M1 support. Perpetual license!
Just did a down load of Photoline and quick try. At the moment just not getting anywhere with the text tool.
What are you trying to achieve? Select the text tool, either click (single line) or drag a text frame. Type.
Also possible to click with the type tool on a path. The Tool Settings panel should be displayed to control the settings.
Did not experiment too long before the program crashed, but all I could get was very tiny text with a default font. When I tried a different font, larger size and different color still came out at the default settings. Probably have to actually create a different font style up front. Will experiment a bit more next time I boot into the sandbox. At the moment it seems needlessly complex, but that probably relates to the vector aspects of the program.
To say I found the manual on this confusing is being generous. Partly because they do a lot with text but seemed to ignore the basic.
Edit it appears you have to adjust text from the menu prior to typing it. Prefer having that option out in a toolbar.
To say I found the manual on this confusing is being generous. Partly because they do a lot with text but seemed to ignore the basic.
Edit it appears you have to adjust text from the menu prior to typing it. Prefer having that option out in a toolbar.
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You can: open the tool settings panel (View-->Panels-->Tool Settings
That is troublesome. In my experience PhotoLine is very, very stable, and almost never crashes - unless there is a bug. The devs squash those type of critical bugs the next beta version.
PhotoLine's functionality goes quite deep (even surpassing Photoshop in some regards), but you've discovered its Achilles' heel: almost nothing exists in regards to tutorials, YouTube presence, etc. The documentation is rather spartan.
And the default GUI setup is rather awkward in my opinion.
Interestingly enough PL exists nearly as long as Photoshop. It began its life on the Atari ST
PhotoLine is an odd outlier in the market. It does things no other image editor does, yet is hardly known about. It doesn't pull any punches, and has rough edges. Documentation is scarce, and tutorials almost non-existent. But for the more advanced user a real workhorse.
I've been an experienced Photoshop user since the late nineties, but nowadays I hardly touch Photoshop anymore - only for certain conversions (for work) and the singular feature here and there. Otherwise I tend to stick to a combo of PhotoLine and Krita and some plugins, as well as InDesign. Affinity Photo, Publisher and Designer are installed on my machine as well, but I hardly touch those. Too many core workflow issues and paper cuts.
Although I understand that many users like Affinity. Serif did a great job on marketing - although their claim that "Affinity is a professional platform for professionals" is beginning to bite them in the behind after experienced users have been asking for fundamental functionality for years and years without seemingly much happening.
I do realize that I am an outlier myself as a user ;-)
Affinity Photo is a good solid option for almost all photographing needs. I use about 25% of its power with odd glitch. PS before that using about 2% and carrying the rest (it seemed) on may back. After 1/2years learning curve PS dumped and no regrets. Of although having to use Rosetta "Fast Raw Viewer" still the fastest and most reliable browser (Raw) I have found; also one off purchase.
I too am getting ready to dump PS (CS6). Learning about Affinity Photo very soon, including figuring how well Affinity Photo works with the NIK plugins. But I also have been using DXO's Photo Lab/NIK. My primary photo app will be Affinity Photo/NIK, and Photo Lab secondary.
I've been experimenting a little with Affinity Photo, which I've had for a long time but never really got into exploring all that much, and I'm liking it as an adjunct to DXO PhotoLab 4, which is still my editing program of choice. I hadn't realized that I could also add my NIK Collection to Affinity Photo as a plug-in.....That's good to know, very useful!
I believe that working with the NIK plugins is possible with older versions of Affinity Photo. I purchased the newest version of it being sold at a discount just before black Friday.
Search for "Affinity Photo and the NIK plugins" (or something similar). Some instructions are simple, while others a little more complicated.
Trouble Installing Nik Collection Plugins in Affinity Photo. Look here
Making Nik Collection free version work in Affinity Photo? Find out how to make it work in Affinity Photo.
www.photography-raw.com
I just followed the instructions in Affinity Photo's "Help" menu, but the instructions above are easier to follow.
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Thanks! I'll check things out. I have the latest version of the Nik Collection, also.... Used to have the freebie but eventually decided it was time to buy the program.
Is there any Lightroom alternative if one wants to sync between Mac and iOS? And also manage their catalog from within the app?
I don't use it, so I don't know whether it will do what you want, but there is a LR app.
For what it's worth, it appears that GIMP now has a new Mac code maintainer. They just released version 2.10.22 -- the first Mac update in about 14 months.
Hopefully the new person will stick around for some time.
That said the uncertainty of solid GIMP support on macOS encourages Mac users to have an alternative.
I also have Pixelmator Pro and Affinity Photo.
I've been a longtime GIMP user but they have squandered my trust that they can provide timely updates for macOS.
Hopefully the new person will stick around for some time.
That said the uncertainty of solid GIMP support on macOS encourages Mac users to have an alternative.
I also have Pixelmator Pro and Affinity Photo.
I've been a longtime GIMP user but they have squandered my trust that they can provide timely updates for macOS.
Photos maybe? I'm a LR user here and I only use it on my Mac, not my iPad. iPad screens aren't very easy to calibrate and match to your other screen.
I have replaced my old unsupported iMac with a new iMac OS Big Sur, no disc slot. I have been using Photoshop for years and hoped to load my CS5 disc onto the new iMac via external disc drive, but the disc will not load. Does anyone know if there is a way to load it, or is CS5 now incompatible with iMac?
CS5 is supposed to have 64bit compatibility. But I think it’s a long shot to get it to work properly on Big Sur.
Sorry. I posted on the wrong thread.
There ought to be a way for someone to delete their own post.
There ought to be a way for someone to delete their own post.